Chez Panisse has been like a chef factory for the East Bay, and some of the best restaurants have been started by veterans. One of the early defectors — and I don’t mean that in a subversive way — was Marsha McBride and Kelsie Kerr at Cafe Rouge on Fourth Street. McBride is still packing them in, and the meat market at the rear of the restaurant has some of the best sausages you’ll find. Shortly Kerr will open her take-out shop, Standard Fare, in West Berkeley.

Then there’s Russell Moore, who was an early practitioner of cooking almost everything over fire at his Camino, which I still think is one of the most underappreciated restaurants in the Bay Area. He opened his restaurant in 2008 and is the subject of my Update review in today’s Chronicle.

Another alum is Charlie Hallowell, who just earned the triple crown: first opening Pizzaiolo that moved to the head of the best pizza pack, then Boot and Shoe Service, both in Oakland. Late last year he debuted his latest, most ambitious restaurant Penrose, directly across the street on Grand from Boot and Shoe.

Because I recently reviewed both Penrose and TBD in San Francisco, two restaurants that also cook exclusively over fire, I decided to return to Camino to see how it compared. It was not only as good as I can remember, but it exceeded my expectations, which meant that I raised the food stars to 3.5. The food has rustic origins but it has an elegance and refinement that belies the cooking methods.